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It is no surprise that parents with primary aged children want to participate in their schooling. Most parents I have spoken to tend to use workbooks because that is what is available, and they do have good exercises for children to practice the skills they learn at school.

The thing is, parents can be using items around the house to support their child’s literacy and numeracy development in a more meaningful way that simply using work books. Here is my suggestion:

Place all of the items on a table, make sure all of the items are mixed up.

Engage in a number of sorting activities:

Sort the items by colour

Sort the items by size

Sort the items by shape

Sort the items by texture

Sort the items by weight

Counting and Graphing:

After sorting the items into a category (for example colours) ask the child to count each of the categorized items.
Questions to ask: How many items are red? How many items are blue? Can you tell me which colour has the most items? Can you tell me which colour has the least items.

Using the graph paper and stickers, create a simple graph using the squares to represent each of the items in the sorted categories.

Writing:

Choose one of the categories and work together to create a list naming each of the sorted groups and practice writing the words on lined paper.

Colours: Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow, Pink, ect.

Shape: Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle, Diamond, ect.

Texture: Soft, Rough, Smooth, Bumpy, Fluffy, ect.

Reading:

Using a variety of texts (books, newspapers, magazines, packaging, ect) ask your child look through the texts and find the words on the list created in the writing step.

When they find a word, read the sentence together and make personal connections to the context of the sentence.
(For Example: In The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown, one section reads, “It is yellow in the middle, it has long white petals…” When your child spots the word Yellow, read the sentence out loud together. Ask your child what they think the sentence is about? Ask them to look at pictures and take a guess. Read the sentences before to clarify and ask your child what they know or understand about, in this case, daisies, or flowers. What other colours can a flower be?)

Once you get into this activity you will experience a number of authentic teachable moments where you can engage your child’s curiosity and discover they’re strengths and challenges!